Improvement in apparatus for preserving and discharging malt liquors



UNITED STATES PATENT EEICE.

LEWIS DUNGAN, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT iN APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING AND DISCHARGING MALT LIQUORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,637, dated November 5, 1861.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LEWIS DUNGAN, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in M. Reeders Patent Apparatus for Preserving and Discharging Malt Liquors; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

My invention consists of a tube with a detachable air-tight cap combined, substan tiallyin the manner described hereinafter, with the piston of the apparatus for preserving and discharging malt liquors, for which Letters Patent were granted to Mahlon Reeder on the 524th day of January, 1860, for the purpose of-preventing the lodgment of air in the space beneath the piston'and more effectually preserving the liquor than in the aforesaid apparatus of M. Reeder.

In order to enable others to make and use my invention, I will now proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The figure in the accompanying drawing, which forms a part of this specification, represents averticalsection of sufficient of Mahlon Reeders patented apparatus for preserving and discharging maltliquors to illustrate my improvement.

A is a cylindrical vessel having a permanent bottom B and a detachable cover C.

D is a packed piston connected by rods G G (which pass through openings in the cover) to a central hub H, through which, as well as through a hand-wheel J, passes a screw I, the lower end of the latter being adapted to turn in a socket c, secured to the cover C, the top of the screw turning in the upper end of a frame K, secured to the vessel in any convenient manner. Near the bottom of the vessel is an openingf, communicating with a faucet through which the liquor is drawn oif from the vessel.

The above-describedparts are essentially the same as those described in the aforesaid patent of Mahlon Reeder, the screw being operated either by the handle 1l or wheel J, the piston being consequently raised or lowered at pleasure and the liquor being discharged through the faucet communicating with the openingfby the depression of the piston.

The great defect of Reeders patent apparatus is that although the piston preserves the malt liquor from exposure to the external air, and thereby maintains it in a comparatively fresh state, it is impossible, in the apparatus as originally designed and used, to prevent a body of air from lodging below the piston and above the liquor, and as this air has more or less tendency to diminish the freshness or briskness of the liquor the object aimed at is not fully attained in the instrument as patented by the said Reeder.

At a convenient point in the piston D, I se-v cure a tube M, communicating with the space below the piston, the tube passing upward through an opening in the cover C and being furnished atthe top with a detachable cap N. As the liquor is being introduced in the first instance into the vessel through any suitable openings in the side of the same,the piston being at the upper end of the vessel and the cap N being removed, the liquor will rise in the tube M to the same level as in the vessel, and when the piston is slightly depressed the liquor will rise still farther in the tube, through the top of which first the air and then thevliquor will flow.

The moment the liquor begins to pass from the tube it will be a certain indication that the whole of the air has been discharged from the space below t-he piston and will serve as the signal for the attendant toattach the cap N, which is made to fit perfectly air-tight to the top of the tube. The piston is thus maintained in contact with the liquor during its further depression and the air is completely excluded from the space below the piston. Should any leakage of the latter be suspected, the cap N maybe now and `then removed and the piston slightly depressed, when any air which may have accumulated below the piston will at once be discharged through the tube, after which the cap may be replaced.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent- The tube M, with its detachable air-tight cap N, when combined with the piston D of the before-described apparatus for preserving and discharging malt liquors, substantially in the manner and for the purpose specified. Y

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LEWIS DUNGAN.

Witnesses:

HENRY HowsoN, CHAs. l-IowsoN. 

